Archive for the ‘March’ tag

After a disappointing 1984 season that saw Team Penske drivers finish no higher than fourth in the overall CART standings, the team began 1985 with a renewed focus on reclaiming the championship. A new March chassis, the 85C, proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle, ultimately carrying Penske drivers to four victories and nine podium finishes. Team driver Al Unser Sr. took that year’s series championship, and this week, the 1985 Penske-March 85C driven by Unser in 10 of the season’s 15 races will cross the auction block in Amelia Island.

Penske first adopted the March chassis for the 1984 season, which saw Unser finish a disappointing ninth and team driver Rick Mears crash heavily at Sanair, ending his season after 11 races. Veteran racer Johnny Rutherford stepped in to fill Mears’s seat at Sanair, Michigan and the second Phoenix race, while Mike Thackwell drove for Mears at Laguna Seca and Las Vegas. Unser’s early season races at Long Beach and Phoenix were run in the previous year’s Penske chassis, meaning the team had very little development time with the March chassis in preseason.

Things changed for 1985, and the combination of the March 85C chassis and the turbocharged, 2.65-liter Cosworth DFX V-8 (then rated at roughly 700 horsepower) proved to be the right setup. Chassis 021, the car to be offered in Florida, was driven by Unser at Long Beach, where he finished fifth; Indianapolis, where he finished fourth; Portland, where he finished fourth; Meadowlands, where he finished third; Cleveland, where he finished third; the Michigan 500, where he finished second; Road America, where he finished seventh; Pocono, where he finished third; the Detroit News 200 at Michigan, where he finished 12th; and Laguna Seca, where he finished second. In between, the car was raced by Danny Sullivan to a fifth-place finish at Sanair, and by Rick Mears, still recovering from his 1984 injuries and running only oval tracks, to a third-place finish at Milwaukee.

Chassis 021, then, was driven by three Indianapolis 500 winners during the 1985 season, while helping four-time Indy 500 winner Unser earn his second (and last) CART Championship. Despite its success during the 1985 season, it was retired by Penske following the race at Laguna Seca, and reportedly kept in Penske inventory until sold into private ownership in the late 1980s. Once actively campaigned on the vintage racing circuit, the Penske-March has not taken to the track since 2000, meaning that work will be needed before the next owner can enjoy the car as its designers intended. Accompanying the car at auction will be a spare set of wheels and documentation of the car’s role in helping Penske, and Unser, reclaim the CART championship for 1985.

Given the car’s significant role in American open-wheel racing history, Gooding & Company predicts a selling price between $200,000 and $250,000 when the car takes the stage in Florida.

Gooding’s Amelia Island sale will take place on Friday, March 13, at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation’s Racquet Park. For additional information, visit GoodingCo.com.

UPDATE (13.March): The 1985 Penske-March 85C sold for a fee-inclusive price of $231,000.

When the seventh annual Barrington Concours d’Elegance occupies the links of the Makray Memorial Golf Course in Barrington, Illinois, one group of cars will likely stand out more than the others. It won’t be waterfall grilles or sidemounts that separate these cars from the rest of the field; instead, it will be massive rear wings, oversized slick tires and cockpits that are best described as “intimate,” even for drivers small in stature. While racing cars are not uncommon at Concours d’Elegance events, American open-wheel race cars are nowhere near as oft-displayed as their foreign equivalents. In recognition of this, Barrington will display significant Indy Cars from the 1960s through 1986, an era that Concours Co-Chair and CEO David Cooper calls “one of the most important and evolutionary periods in Indy Car history.”

Assembled by racer-turned-car-collector Don Devine (best known for driving the Meister Brauser Scarab Mk II) and racer-turned-team-owner Bobby Rahal (best known for winning the 1986 Indy 500, as well as the 1986, 1987 and 1992 Indy Car championship), the category spans the years before the CART and Indy Racing League split, when the Indy 500 was still a must-watch event for all American racing fans. Cars confirmed for display include a 1972 All-American Racers Indy Eagle; a 1979 McLaren M24B-3 with an 850 horsepower turbocharged V-8, as campaigned by Tom Sneva in 1979; a 1980 Ward & Watson Indy Car, powered by a 375hp Chevrolet V-8; and a 1986 March 86C, showing the same livery campaigned by Emerson Fitipaldi for Patrick Racing during the 1986 season. Additional cars are planned for display, but have not yet been confirmed.

1972 All American Racers Indy Eagle.

The period chosen represents the glory years of Indy car, when car design was far from standardized and the rules embraced a near “run-what-you-brung” philosophy (within safety standards, of course). The 1972 AAR Indy Eagle, for example, uses a four-cylinder that traces its design to a 1912 Peugeot engine; while somewhat primitive, it was capable of withstanding 120 inches of boost from its a single Garrett turbocharger, ultimately producing as much as 1,100 peak horsepower.

In addition to Indy Cars, this year’s Barrington Concours d’Elegance will also feature a display of Vincent Motorcycles, a collection of Duesenbergs and a selection of Avions Voisins. For more information on the July 12-14 event, visit BarringtonConcours.org.